My Rant about Newsletter Automation

[LilyBLily]

The concept makes my head hurt. I've read Newsletter Ninja and other screeds and first I've got to do this and then I've got to do that and then I must do some other thing, all to woo readers. And give them cookies and ask them questions and bah, humbug.

This concept is about the only reason I'd want to be traditionally published--so no one would rationally expect me to woo readers. They'd expect me to do lots of social media and be nice to readers and pay for my own ads, but they would not expect wooing.

I expend a lot of energy writing these stories. I really don't have much left for this kind of dance. When it comes right down to it, no author becomes an autobuy on the strength of wooing or a cookie. They become autobuys when the books are pleasurable to readers and consistent in tone and content so readers know the next book will have more of the same they liked before. And that's it.

Rant over.

[Jessica]

Think about the newsletter not as a cookie but a bait, and your readers are the fishes you want to catch and bind to you while you prepare the next new shiny thing (= novel) for them. There are a lot of shiny things in this pond, in fact so many that readers/ buyers can afford to have the memory of a goldfish and still find stuff to chew on. So if you're going to fish without bait, your catch will go for the bait of your "friendly" neighbour and forget about you.

All weird talk about fishing aside, I think the same sometimes. But then again, I work in retail in my dayjob and giving out cookies now and then is just business to me. Although, sometimes, I am really thankful for (some of) our costumers and beeing nice to them with a special cookie as a thank you makes me also feel good.

[RBC]

Who said you wouldn't need to woo readers with trad. pub?

You'd need to do book signings (and travel there and buy books for them from your own royalties, and live in hotels, and spend money to do it), you'd maybe need to do interviews (more travel and spend). You'd still probably have or be recommended to have an email list, just probably wouldn't have control of it 100% (someone in 'marketing department' would run it and who knows if they'd do well).

It's just investment into your career. Into longetivity of it. It's not hard to write email newsletter and it's not a hugely creative thing to write an email.

And writing a reader magnet is just another reason for you to write more! How can writing a book be good and creative, but writing a reader magnet wouldn't be that? It's the same thing, it allows you to tell stories. And to tell stories who care, somewhat, about you.

It's something to be appreciated and valued. People's attention is sparse and even a little bit of it spent on you (in any way) is awesome. Means you're doing good job.

[Joe Vasicek]

I currently have 5,140 subscribers on my email list. My last campaign had 1,863 unique opens (36.1%) and 405 unique clicks (7.84%). I don't do any sort of automated welcome sequence.

When I get an organic subscriber, the confirmation email has a brief welcome note, and a link to my sign-up incentive. Most of my subscribers come from newsletter builders on Book Funnel and Story Origin, and before sending them my first newsletter, I manually send them a welcome campaign, which is basically the same thing that I send the organic subscribers. That's it.

Back when I was trying to figure out how to do this email newsletter thing effectively, I signed up for a bunch of authors' email lists to see how they did it. One of them had a email welcome sequence, and the first email that I noticed from him said "you haven't responded to either of my last two emails. Do you still want to be on this list?" It left me rather confused, and convinced me that it was better to err on the side of simplicity and do a single welcome email, if any at all.

Subscribers gained from newsletter giveaways have very little investment in you as an author, at least when they start out. They picked up your book because it looked interesting, but they probably haven't read it by the time they get your first email and probably can't even place your name to the book they picked up. A welcome sequence can be a way to "break the ice," but it can also be a turn-off because it demands interaction from prospective readers before they've tried out any of your books.

My newsletter campaigns are designed to have something for the new subscriber who's still in the "what's this thing doing in my inbox?" phase and something for the "yay, one of my favorite authors!" phase. I don't need an elaborate welcome sequence because readers can jump in at any point and find something for them. The key, I believe, is to offer real value with every email and make no demands.

[JRTomlin]

I only want people on my list who actually are probably at least slightly interested in my books. Early on I tried some of the giveaway gimmicks to get signups and all they did was give me a long list almost none of whom opened my newsletter. Last year, I started regularly purging emails from my list where the newsletter was never opened. I don't ask; I just purge ones that haven't opened an email in the last 18 months. That has cleared out most of the dross. Yes, my list is now much shorter but I have an open rate at about 60% and generally a click rate at 20% or higher depending on what its for.

I only automate the first response where people confirm that they did indeed want on the list. The link to join is in the back of every one of my novels offering one of my novels as a giveaway for joining, so not many people join who don't have some interest. That works for me and is about the opposite of what the 'experts' advise. I asked a question once and received almost no response because my list subscribers seem to want to hear about upcoming books or special offers which suits me just fine.

So if you're not comfortable with the 'expert' advice, just ignore what doesn't suit you. It is possible to run (what I consider) a reasonably successful email list without doing what they say to do.

ETA: I'm not saying they're wrong, just that it is not necessarily 'one size fits all'. If it doesn't fit, don't wear it.

[RBC]

I only want people on my list who actually are probably at least slightly interested in my books. Early on I tried some of the giveaway gimmicks to get signups and all they did was give me a long list almost none of whom opened my newsletter. Last year, I started regularly purging emails from my list where the newsletter was never opened. I don't ask; I just purge ones that haven't opened an email in the last 18 months. That has cleared out most of the dross. Yes, my list is now much shorter but I have an open rate at about 60% and generally a click rate at 20% or higher depending on what its for.

I only automate the first response where people confirm that they did indeed want on the list. The link to join is in the back of every one of my novels offering one of my novels as a giveaway for joining, so not many people join who don't have some interest. That works for me and is about the opposite of what the 'experts' advise. I asked a question once and received almost no response because my list subscribers seem to want to hear about upcoming books or special offers which suits me just fine.

So if you're not comfortable with the 'expert' advice, just ignore what doesn't suit you. It is possible to run (what I consider) a reasonably successful email list without doing what they say to do.

ETA: I'm not saying they're wrong, just that it is not necessarily 'one size fits all'. If it doesn't fit, don't wear it.

While mostly agreeing, I'd be careful with purging. It purges good readers too. I've had it in my email list. Some people open emails but it doesn't get reported by the email service properly due to some tech reason and they 'seem' like inactive even tho they are reading. I've lost some active subs due to that.

It's not a perfect solution and shouldn't be overused.

Esp. when collating all subscribers in one list. It's much better to have multiple lists and have each for different source. Giveaway readers in one email list, website subscribers in other. It's easy and doesn't add much work when sending (just selecting more than one list).

Plus, it's much better data to see how giveaways are working. Maybe email list only opens it at 5% rate. That is still, some sales that impact Amazon rankings. I'd purge this list more often, and the website sub list less often.

It's easy to criticise giveaway subs as less active, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be done. You can impact people and increase their 'care' factor. If every reader counts, than not doing these giveaways doesn't match that POV. Esp. in the age of automated email sequences which you do once and they are sent out for you. It's easy. It's simple. It's a good tool in the box.

The only thing that matters is that there are people who will read from giveaways, no matter how small a percentage. It's crazy to ditch them if author is struggling especially (Mark Dawson can ditch them and not feel it, that would be decent for his level of known). But if book sales are a struggle... why drop even one reader??

[JRTomlin]

I feel fairly confident that if the system hasn't recorded an email being opened in 18 months, that the person is not one of my readers. Of course, you can always send out 'do you want to stay on my list' emails, but I haven't bothered. Anyone who isn't comfortable purging quite as harshly as I do should do that.

As for giveaways, I simply have not found them productive for sales so I don't want to spend the money on them. Other people obviously have other experiences, I agree that I don't follow 'expert' advice. I am not telling anyone else to do as I do, just saying what I do.

[Joe Vasicek]

There are good reasons to clean up your list. If you don't, your emails are more likely to bounce or end up in spam. From what I've heard, you want to have an open rate of 30% or higher. Yes, a very small handful of active subscribers aren't going to show up as opens, but it's not worth keeping all of your dead subscribers just in the hopes of keeping them.

Before I send out a newsletter, I delete all of my subscribers who haven't opened an email in the last 12 months. I suppose if I were better organized, I could send out a "do you still want to be on my list?" email, but I just don't bother. I assume that most of these are dummy accounts that readers never check anyways.

[RBC]

No one said not to clean email lists. Just don't get trigger happy with it.

[Joe Vasicek]

No one said not to clean email lists. Just don't get trigger happy with it.

Agreed. Which is another reason not to do an elaborate welcome sequence as a way to screen out "good" subscribers from "bad."

[RBC]

No one said not to clean email lists. Just don't get trigger happy with it.

Agreed. Which is another reason not to do an elaborate welcome sequence as a way to screen out "good" subscribers from "bad."

Lol sorry but you're just looking for a reason not to do some of the marketing work.

Main goal of welcome sequence is not to screen them out anyway, it's to make them learn about you and develop a little of familiarity (not necessarily a full-blown 'relationship' as it's said sometimes). That's how you build a brand. Repeat exposure, creating context. Releasing a book once a year is not enough. No matter how great it is. Just too much noise, sadly. It's easy to complain about marketing getting harder these days but at the same time, most authors seem to avoid a lot of marketing possibilities. So yes, it will just get harder to market if most expect that marketing is just clicking a few buttons to order a BookBub campaign or create an ad. These are easy things. Other businesses and creatives have much more marketing work and still do it.
 
Elaborate welcome sequence can also be a great thing FOR your readers. Not something to just 'screen' them but something to improve their experience as readers overall (like recommending better reads, heck even suggesting how to know if a book is good or not etc).

Shame to see but authors rarely seem to look at this as also helping and leading people, doing a service for them.. there are more ways to contribute than just writing good stories.

[JRTomlin]

No, one size does not fit all, and that I don't do it your way does not mean that I don't work at marketing. But thanks for the 'advice'.

[Lynn]

Lol. I prefer readers who aren't a lot of work. I also hate most welcome sequences as a reader and have unsubscribed from many a list as fast as I've subscribed when I realized I was going to get deluged with email instead of just being notified about new releases and sales. I don't assume all readers are like me. I just know the kind of readers I'm more interested in cultivating.

[JRTomlin]

Well said, Lynn, and a bit less prickly than my reaction. 

ETA: I do sometimes email when I don't have a sale, although I try to time my sales to coincide with an email. I send out an email once a month and if nothing else with a cover reveal or sample of an upcoming novel. But usually at least with a price reduced offer.

[Lorri Moulton]

I don't have a list.  Not an official one.  I use my website blog as the email, but I am thinking about starting a newsletter.  I want a place to have garden tours, tea ideas, old houses...and mention my books once in a while.  I don't want to pay for the list right now, so I may be doing this backwards creating a list within the larger group.  If it works...yay.  If not, I'll probably think about a more conventional approach.

[RBC]

No, one size does not fit all, and that I don't do it your way does not mean that I don't work at marketing. But thanks for the 'advice'.

Don't care if you do it. I'm posting to bust excuses more for those lurking and reading anyway. This is just discussion.

There are things that work for everyone, in a broad sense. Success does leave clues. They can be executed in different ways, but still work. Email lists are one of those, because they are staple not in selfpub alone, but even in e-commerce, and all other business like service businesses. Welcome sequences work well too. Milloin ways to do them too. Just another option to be creative.

[RBC]

I don't have a list.  Not an official one.  I use my website blog as the email, but I am thinking about starting a newsletter.  I want a place to have garden tours, tea ideas, old houses...and mention my books once in a while.  I don't want to pay for the list right now, so I may be doing this backwards creating a list within the larger group.  If it works...yay.  If not, I'll probably think about a more conventional approach.

You wouldn't need to pay for first 1000 subscribers using Mailerlite.com. Mailchimp even more. Could be an option!

[Anarchist]

My email lists are my greatest assets. That said, I've not come across any author who does email like me (I follow hundreds).

I get that some people are averse to building and maintaining an engaged list. It's not for everyone. But I wouldn't sell nearly as much as I do without my lists.

[Joe Vasicek]

Don't care if you do it. I'm posting to bust excuses more for those lurking and reading anyway. This is just discussion.

Don't be disingenuous.

What evidence do you have that a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence is a marketing best practice, and that those who opt for a different strategy are, in your words, "just looking for a reason not to do some of the marketing work"?

In my first post on this thread, I presented some recent statistics from my list to show that I'm not just full of sh*t. If your goal is truly to "bust excuses," why haven't you done the same?

My email lists are my greatest assets. That said, I've not come across any author who does email like me (I follow hundreds).

I get that some people are averse to building and maintaining an engaged list. It's not for everyone. But I wouldn't sell nearly as much as I do without my lists.

I definitely believe that it's important to build and maintain an engaged list. I just don't think you need a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence to do it.

Some readers love having frequent personal contact with their favorite authors. Others, like Lynn, are just in it for the books, and everything else is fluff. For the latter group, sharing pictures of your kids or asking which Hogwarts house is the best is counterproductive and likely to tun them off. That's why I believe that a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence isn't the best general strategy.

I do try to send at least one welcome email that explains what my readers can expect. I also try to answer all the reader emails that I get, and I get a fair amount of those in response to every newsletter. But I also know that I have plenty of readers who only skim over my emails. They'll click through if they see something they like, but that's about it.

[Joe Vasicek]

You wouldn't need to pay for first 1000 subscribers using Mailerlite.com. Mailchimp even more. Could be an option!

I use Sendy. You have to have your own hosting and an AWS account, and it cost something like $75 to license the software, but after that it's just a flat $.10 per 1,000 emails or something ridiculous like that.

Honestly, I think the main reason why so many authors use a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence is less that they honestly want to engage with their readers and more that the high cost of services like Mailchimp force them to purge out as much dead weight (or perceived dead weight) from their lists as they can.

[RBC]

Don't care if you do it. I'm posting to bust excuses more for those lurking and reading anyway. This is just discussion.

Don't be disingenuous.

What evidence do you have that a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence is a marketing best practice, and that those who opt for a different strategy are, in your words, "just looking for a reason not to do some of the marketing work"?

In my first post on this thread, I presented some recent statistics from my list to show that I'm not just full of sh*t. If your goal is truly to "bust excuses," why haven't you done the same?

My email lists are my greatest assets. That said, I've not come across any author who does email like me (I follow hundreds).

I get that some people are averse to building and maintaining an engaged list. It's not for everyone. But I wouldn't sell nearly as much as I do without my lists.

I definitely believe that it's important to build and maintain an engaged list. I just don't think you need a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence to do it.

Some readers love having frequent personal contact with their favorite authors. Others, like Lynn, are just in it for the books, and everything else is fluff. For the latter group, sharing pictures of your kids or asking which Hogwarts house is the best is counterproductive and likely to tun them off. That's why I believe that a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence isn't the best general strategy.

I do try to send at least one welcome email that explains what my readers can expect. I also try to answer all the reader emails that I get, and I get a fair amount of those in response to every newsletter. But I also know that I have plenty of readers who only skim over my emails. They'll click through if they see something they like, but that's about it.

You didn't provide any stats that show welcome sequences don't work. Posting your own stats isn't that. I've done my research on email marketing and know why it works. I'm not married to it, one day it might be useless. But it isn't now. It's simple process that anyone must do. Which is again, work some don't want to do. I don't get it because I'm a believer in the principle of Slight Edge - that you should work on and find any avenue to increase your own chance of success. Which means ton and ton of work, some of which stinks.


Welcome sequences work due to people not being always in a 'buying now' mode or in the case of giveaways, readers being completely uninvested in the author yet. Thus they are perfect because they are long term play, it's about building a relationship over time, with repetition and providing value. Many people are also forgetful due to huge amount of content noise these days.

I also mention you can have welcome sequence only for those that are from giveaways and have no such thing for people who come from your website or books. So I don't just say you must have welcome sequence all the time. Neither they have to be some highly complicated things with ton of conditions and other stuff, you make them to be a big beast, to me a great sequence can be 5 emails with just text providing value. That's it.

In general, email lists are still underused tool as many authors still somehow equate them to spam and don't use them... Which shows zero education on what email lists are and how they work. Judgment before learning. Welcome sequences have a bit of similar feel too as authors are scared to be overwhelming with emails. But all these are myths that, despite many best efforts still don't get listened to. There may be plenty of blog posts and advice saying email lists are great but many many authors still don't use them.

There is an argument to be made that 'I don't like them so I don't use them' as we should be able to build careers as close to being free from work we don't want to do as possible. But that's not gonna happen 100%. We're grownups and part of it is knowing that sacrifice will happen. Want something, esp. something that exchanges money with you from other people? Then you'll have to do the work and some of that work will be what you don't like. And the bigger the ambition level, the more of that lame work will need to be done (or outsourced but that's not easy to afford for most).

Worst thing, email lists are so easy and simple compared to other work that authors may not like, that it's ridiculous. Other industries need to do seriously more work than marketing books, book marketing is not rocket science at all. I wish it was enough to just click a few buttons to order a BookBub campaign, but it won't. But at least authors don't need to leave their home at all, don't need to shlep across the country with bags of books to do signing, or attend conferences or write free articles to educate readers (like service professionals do), don't even need to worry too much about SEO. Marketing books is quite simple. But the prevalence of 'I don't like' or 'I don't understand' marketing is ridiculously high still. Not aimed at this forum alone, this is an observation of whole internet communities of authors in my last 8+ years being in industry.

Hopefully, it gets better. But still way way too much of this.

[RBC]

You wouldn't need to pay for first 1000 subscribers using Mailerlite.com. Mailchimp even more. Could be an option!

I use Sendy. You have to have your own hosting and an AWS account, and it cost something like $75 to license the software, but after that it's just a flat $.10 per 1,000 emails or something ridiculous like that.

Honestly, I think the main reason why so many authors use a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence is less that they honestly want to engage with their readers and more that the high cost of services like Mailchimp force them to purge out as much dead weight (or perceived dead weight) from their lists as they can.

Might be good cheaper option for those more technically inclined then.

That may be happening for sure, MC is crazy for counting 'used' subscribers forever and forcing authors to move to paid plans faster (they were at least). But the welcome sequences weren't invented by authors and were done long before. It's just a good tactic that works in thousand of industries.

[Lorri Moulton]

I don't have a list.  Not an official one.  I use my website blog as the email, but I am thinking about starting a newsletter.  I want a place to have garden tours, tea ideas, old houses...and mention my books once in a while.  I don't want to pay for the list right now, so I may be doing this backwards creating a list within the larger group.  If it works...yay.  If not, I'll probably think about a more conventional approach.

You wouldn't need to pay for first 1000 subscribers using Mailerlite.com. Mailchimp even more. Could be an option!

Thank you, RBC. I have over 1900 people following me on my website, so I'm hoping to keep those as is and focus on a smaller group of buyers who are interested in a more detailed newsletter.

Of course, if they all sign up I'll pay for the list...but I think many just keep track of new releases and any free days. 

[TimothyEllis]

Will someone explain what a 'welcome sequence' is please?

[RBC]

I don't have a list.  Not an official one.  I use my website blog as the email, but I am thinking about starting a newsletter.  I want a place to have garden tours, tea ideas, old houses...and mention my books once in a while.  I don't want to pay for the list right now, so I may be doing this backwards creating a list within the larger group.  If it works...yay.  If not, I'll probably think about a more conventional approach.

You wouldn't need to pay for first 1000 subscribers using Mailerlite.com. Mailchimp even more. Could be an option!

Thank you, RBC. I have over 1900 people following me on my website, so I'm hoping to keep those as is and focus on a smaller group of buyers who are interested in a more detailed newsletter.

Of course, if they all sign up I'll pay for the list...but I think many just keep track of new releases and any free days. 

Yeah, some of them will sign up for email list. And you can have both (signing up for email list wont take them away from website list).

I have some authors who are fans on Facebook AND FB group members AND email list subscribers. Some even multiple email list subs. Usually it will not the same amount of them. So 'general following' will be much bigger than email list most likely. Average conversion rate to email list is about 2% all over the internet. So you can extrapolate that from your monthly traffic for example. I have 3000-4000 visits a month and get about 50-80 subs a month. But more people do come back to website than that, email list is more of a 'commitment' so it will not be as easy to grow as website traffic.

[JRTomlin]

Any mailing list I joined that promptly sent me five emails would be instantly unsubscribed. That this 'works for everyone' and is the only way to successfully do a mailing list is bullsh*t. My 50%+ open rate and 25%+ click rate says otherwise.

ETA: When one of my readers emails me, I immediately reply. That is a given. Doing otherwise is rude. Some readers do like to interact, and I am happy to do so.

[TimothyEllis]

Any mailing list I joined that promptly sent me five emails would be instantly unsubscribed.

Yep. Me too. I hate being bombarded. And 5 in a short time is exactly that.

[RBC]

Will someone explain what a 'welcome sequence' is please?

A sequence of emails automatically delivered by your email service with intent to introduce you or your product to the subscriber. Usually it's somewhat strategic, but mostly in businesses. Mainly, it does have to provide value. In terms of authors it's value in form of entertainment but as a designer I have a sequence that sends book cover tips and advice in multiple emails, spaced out every some days.

Simplest way of starting it could be:

Email 1: Welcome to X author's book club - send a short intro, thank for joining and set expectation for what comes next. Could be asking a question about what they read etc
Email 2: Could be something about 5 awesome but underrated books in genre X
Email 3: Something from behind the scenes of your life and writing
Email 4: Coupon? Any kind of gift... or general intro into your books or series (why written, what inspired it)...
Email 5: Ask some question, maybe about genre, maybe about why they liked your reading etc

This is just super general example. Can be done in many ways...  And since it's done automatically you don't need to worry about sending emails yourself.

[TimothyEllis]

Ah. What JRTomlin said.

[RBC]

Any mailing list I joined that promptly sent me five emails would be instantly unsubscribed. That this 'works for everyone' and is the only way to successfully do a mailing list is bullsh*t.

Who said 'promptly'?

Again, where is this automatically negative assumption coming. Why automatically assume the worst case scenario that annoys you when there is huge spectrum of sending options??

Usually, 5 emails are delivered over time. For author's welcome sequence it's probably once a week emails.

There are some cases where daily emails work - I have one - it's a 5-day challenge for better book covers. Authors sign up for a burst of knowledge and tips about them. And then emails slow down.

That is the specific use of a tool, in a specific case and authors love it.

There are plenty of long daily challenges, like 30 Days to Better Website or 30 Days to Losing Weight or Eating better etc.

Many ways to execute email automation.

You don't go railing against knives because people kill with them. You don't throw out your knives because of it. You know it's a tool. Same here.

[RBC]

If someone is interested in actually LEARNING about this tool, rather than just judgemental waving off because of some preconceived notions or preferences, here is a good read:

https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-email-marketing-for-authors

Not too long but with some stats, examples and general explanations.

[JRTomlin]

Once a week for five weeks is promptly and, worse, I would consider it spam. You'd be unsubscribed so fast your email provider would spin.

ETA: You are the one who is saying that anyone who doesn't do it your way is wrong, not a 'grownup', and lazy. Anyone who wants to try your way to see if it works for them should do so. But it is not the only way to successfully run an email list.

[Joe Vasicek]

You didn't provide any stats that show welcome sequences don't work. Posting your own stats isn't that. I've done my research on email marketing and know why it works. I'm not married to it, one day it might be useless. But it isn't now. It's simple process that anyone must do. Which is again, work some don't want to do. I don't get it because I'm a believer in the principle of Slight Edge - that you should work on and find any avenue to increase your own chance of success. Which means ton and ton of work, some of which stinks.


Welcome sequences work due to people not being always in a 'buying now' mode or in the case of giveaways, readers being completely uninvested in the author yet. Thus they are perfect because they are long term play, it's about building a relationship over time, with repetition and providing value. Many people are also forgetful due to huge amount of content noise these days.

I also mention you can have welcome sequence only for those that are from giveaways and have no such thing for people who come from your website or books. So I don't just say you must have welcome sequence all the time. Neither they have to be some highly complicated things with ton of conditions and other stuff, you make them to be a big beast, to me a great sequence can be 5 emails with just text providing value. That's it.

In general, email lists are still underused tool as many authors still somehow equate them to spam and don't use them... Which shows zero education on what email lists are and how they work. Judgment before learning. Welcome sequences have a bit of similar feel too as authors are scared to be overwhelming with emails. But all these are myths that, despite many best efforts still don't get listened to. There may be plenty of blog posts and advice saying email lists are great but many many authors still don't use them.

There is an argument to be made that 'I don't like them so I don't use them' as we should be able to build careers as close to being free from work we don't want to do as possible. But that's not gonna happen 100%. We're grownups and part of it is knowing that sacrifice will happen. Want something, esp. something that exchanges money with you from other people? Then you'll have to do the work and some of that work will be what you don't like. And the bigger the ambition level, the more of that lame work will need to be done (or outsourced but that's not easy to afford for most).

Worst thing, email lists are so easy and simple compared to other work that authors may not like, that it's ridiculous. Other industries need to do seriously more work than marketing books, book marketing is not rocket science at all. I wish it was enough to just click a few buttons to order a BookBub campaign, but it won't. But at least authors don't need to leave their home at all, don't need to shlep across the country with bags of books to do signing, or attend conferences or write free articles to educate readers (like service professionals do), don't even need to worry too much about SEO. Marketing books is quite simple. But the prevalence of 'I don't like' or 'I don't understand' marketing is ridiculously high still. Not aimed at this forum alone, this is an observation of whole internet communities of authors in my last 8+ years being in industry.

Hopefully, it gets better. But still way way too much of this.

More than half of the points you bring up here are points that I have already addressed. Merely repeating them does not constitute a valid counter-argument.

You have also failed to present any data. Again. Instead, you resort to condescension ("we're grownups") and appeal to authority ("in my last 8+ years being in industry"). I'm starting to think that for you, this is less about protecting innocent authors and more about self-justification.

If you want to turn this from a discussion to a debate, it's time to put up or shut up.

[Joe Vasicek]

judgemental waving off because of some preconceived notions or preferences,

Projection much?

[Joe Vasicek]

If someone is interested in actually LEARNING about this tool, rather than just judgemental waving off because of some preconceived notions or preferences, here is a good read:

https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-email-marketing-for-authors

Not too long but with some stats, examples and general explanations.

Written Word Media is a good resource for indie writers. I follow their blog and have purchased the professional version of their MyBookTable plugin.

However, from the article you linked:

Spamming Your List Erodes Your Asset

Earlier in the article we covered the importance of your email list and how it is one of your most valuable marketing assets. You are spending time and money to build your list. So it’s important not to decrease the value of your email list by emailing your subscribers too frequently.

and

69% of readers say that they unsubscribe because they are receiving too many emails.

Regarding welcome emails:

Start by Saying Hello

The first step in being an email marketing champ is to make a good first impression. And the best way to do this is with a Welcome Email.

"A Welcome Email."

"A"

As in, "one."

I don't see anything in this article about lengthy welcome sequences, or sending five emails to a new subscriber when they sign up for your list. In fact, quite the opposite.

Got another article you'd care to link us to?

[Luke Everhart]

When it comes right down to it, no author becomes an autobuy on the strength of wooing or a cookie. They become autobuys when the books are pleasurable to readers and consistent in tone and content so readers know the next book will have more of the same they liked before. And that's it.

As a voracious reader (I'm an author too but no experience so reader hat 🤠) I completely agree that the driver is all on the back of the actual books, great stories that we want more of, BUT when you lead a lot of books from a lot of different authors and some of those authors go quite a few months between releases it can make a big difference to update we readers on when the next is coming by a simple e-newsletter.

As far as the bonus stuff and life outtakes and other things that often populate successful author's newsletters, that's stuff for the real fans and it's not wasted. A lot of us readers get quite curious about an author if they've really grabbed us with their books. It's kinda weird but hey look at tv and movie celebrity culture so...  Providing that sort of stuff helps ensure we'll try that new series that's a big genre departure for a fav author, for example; and, for series we know we love, it helps ensure that big release day launch because we really dedicated fans are jumping all in on day one.

(Also I've read Newsletter Ninja and watched 2 podcast interviews with Tammi Labrecque and it seems like pretty awesome advice to me. It's going to be my blueprint)

EDITED because apparently Ms. Labrecque spells her name Tammi not Tammy

[LilyBLily]

Once a week for five weeks is promptly and, worse, I would consider it spam. You'd be unsubscribed so fast your email provider would spin.

ETA: You are the one who is saying that anyone who doesn't do it your way is wrong, not a 'grownup', and lazy. Anyone who wants to try your way to see if it works for them should do so. But it is not the only way to successfully run an email list.

Most companies try to spam us with once-a-week emails, which is why we unsubscribe. The worst offenders do not offer an intermediate email status. You're either getting all those emails or none.

I get three-times-a-week emails from Walgreens even though I never consciously agreed to subscribe and I legally unsubscribed two months ago. The emails just keep coming even though I wrote a letter to the company physical address listed; there's no online contact email address. This is what I call spam.

Apparently, companies have evidence that their spam sells enough product to make it worthwhile to annoy some of us and ignore federal law, too.

Here's my evidence: I sent my list BookFunnel promos four weeks in a row. About 100 people unsubscribed and I got a bunch more KU reads. I really have no way of weighing the negative against the positive, though. One rule of marketing is that it's always more expensive to get a new customer than to retain an existing one. The problem is, I have little evidence that any of the people on my newsletter list other than the few organic subscribers is actually a customer.

Responding to RBC's challenge, I have in fact done a lot of marketing things and not done any of them well, IMO. That was the gist of my initial rant, that the requirement to do this careful feeding and tending of mailing list names is beyond me even though I have tried. It's easy to counter that I haven't tried hard enough; this may well be true, but I simply do not have it in me to try any harder than I already do. It makes my brain hurt.

[JRTomlin]

Most companies try to spam us with once-a-week emails, which is why we unsubscribe.

Which is exactly what I try not to do. I tell my subscribers that I will email them once a month and that's what I do. I do follow Written Word Media's advice in their blog (I agree with Joe that they're a good source of advice) and send "A welcome email" which also ensures that they really do want to be on my list.

ETA: There is no one on my list who doesn't at least occasionally open my email and also at least occasionally click on a link. I could be wrong, but I consider this evidence that they are customers (or at least serious prospects). Therefore, I am definitely not going to risk offending them.

I give my email list a very light sprinkling of personal stuff, but not too personal. They probably know that I have a westie and have even seen his picture and know that his name is Hamish MacFluff. I don't get much more personal than that. I've mentioned a visit to the Oregon coast or hiking, a little very general stuff. Of course in my last email, I mentioned our concerns about staying safe. I've discussed having problems with writers' block. But it is only occasional and just little snippets. 95% of my email information is about books, what is coming up and if there is some novel at a reduced price.

II do agree that it's a good idea to keep our names and what to expect in front of fans, but I think doing that once a month is plenty, at least for me.

[Anarchist]

ETA: When one of my readers emails me, I immediately reply. That is a given. Doing otherwise is rude. Some readers do like to interact, and I am happy to do so.

Personally, I ignore 99% of the emails I receive from subscribers. My lists are large, and I'm managing multiple brands. My inbox gets flooded daily. There's no time to respond to people and still get work done.

I was going to hire someone to do it for me, but decided it wasn't necessary. My lack of response has had zero effect on my metrics.

That's not to say it isn't rude. I don't make that consideration. I place everything on the altar of metrics, and anything that hurts my numbers gets tossed out the door.

[RPatton]

Don't care if you do it. I'm posting to bust excuses more for those lurking and reading anyway. This is just discussion.

Don't be disingenuous.

What evidence do you have that a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence is a marketing best practice, and that those who opt for a different strategy are, in your words, "just looking for a reason not to do some of the marketing work"?

In my first post on this thread, I presented some recent statistics from my list to show that I'm not just full of sh*t. If your goal is truly to "bust excuses," why haven't you done the same?

It primes the pump. Their ISP is looking at the frequency of emails from your IP. It's also looking at opens, clicks, and replies. Any engagement. If you only have engagement once a month, the ISP is likely to shuttle your emails away from the actual inbox and the reader won't see it. ISPs can even quarantine an email from an IP without labeling it as spam.

3-5 emails in 15-30 days that show engagement is enough for the ISP to keep the welcome mat out for your IP.

My email lists are my greatest assets. That said, I've not come across any author who does email like me (I follow hundreds).
I get that some people are averse to building and maintaining an engaged list. It's not for everyone. But I wouldn't sell nearly as much as I do without my lists.

I definitely believe that it's important to build and maintain an engaged list. I just don't think you need a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence to do it.

Some readers love having frequent personal contact with their favorite authors. Others, like Lynn, are just in it for the books, and everything else is fluff. For the latter group, sharing pictures of your kids or asking which Hogwarts house is the best is counterproductive and likely to tun them off. That's why I believe that a lengthy and complicated welcome sequence isn't the best general strategy.

I do try to send at least one welcome email that explains what my readers can expect. I also try to answer all the reader emails that I get, and I get a fair amount of those in response to every newsletter. But I also know that I have plenty of readers who only skim over my emails. They'll click through if they see something they like, but that's about it.

If you are sending out emails consistently and have good engagement, great.

The reason why most marketing firms encourage welcome chains of at least 3 emails is because it is best practice. A brief chain will keep your name on readers' minds and it helps maintain a healthy relationship between your IP and the ISPs. Even if your email is whitelisted, there is no guarantee the readers' eyeballs will ever see an email if their ISP is guarding the gate.

[TimothyEllis]

ISPs can even quarantine an email from an IP without labeling it as spam.

Spamblocking.

People dont even know it's happening.

People signing up for forums often don't get their registration email because the ISP already has the site spamblocked.

One of the reasons for non-opening of author emails is not lack of interest, but the person never received them, even though the email was received by the ISP.

[JRTomlin]

If you are sending out emails consistently and have good engagement, great.

The reason why most marketing firms encourage welcome chains of at least 3 emails is because it is best practice. A brief chain will keep your name on readers' minds and it helps maintain a healthy relationship between your IP and the ISPs. Even if your email is whitelisted, there is no guarantee the readers' eyeballs will ever see an email if their ISP is guarding the gate.

Any actual evidence that starting out by sending an email every few days is 'best practice'? Calling it 'best practice' is not evidence that it will work better than a single welcome email.

 If you send a lot of emails and they are never opened, the relationship you build with their ISP may be a spamblock. 

[RPatton]

If you are sending out emails consistently and have good engagement, great.

The reason why most marketing firms encourage welcome chains of at least 3 emails is because it is best practice. A brief chain will keep your name on readers' minds and it helps maintain a healthy relationship between your IP and the ISPs. Even if your email is whitelisted, there is no guarantee the readers' eyeballs will ever see an email if their ISP is guarding the gate.

Any actual evidence that starting out by sending an email every few days is 'best practice'? Calling it 'best practice' is not evidence that it will work better than a single welcome email.

 If you send a lot of emails and they are never opened, the relationship you build with their ISP may be a spamblock.

Here's one link https://www.formget.com/ip-warmup-best-practices/

The biggest issue in this thread is that everyone is convinced they know what's best based on what they prefer. Except, the people who are saying, I'd report 5 emails in a month as spam, aren't the target audience.

Newsletters should be targeted to people who are likely to buy through newsletters. So, when companies put together best practices, they aren't looking at a huge population, they are looking at a specific population. People who are likely to make a purchase from a newsletter.

There was a similar argument about pop-ups once. Most people posting in the thread hate them and therefore believe everyone else hates them, except the data doesn't pan out that way.

People who are promoting welcome/drip campaigns in this thread are encouraging them because they do work, for multiple reasons based on the target audience. They aren't promoting them because they personally like or dislike them.

[JRTomlin]

I have no idea who 'formget' is or why I should assume they are the ultimate authority, but I don't see anything in the article I would particularly disagree with. Nothing in the article says that you must start off with thee 'welcome' emails. It suggests unsubscribing inactive addresses: A good idea. It suggests sending emails 'regularly' and at regular intervals. (It does not define 'regularly'). I agree with that and have said I do. Of course, it also suggests of other practices, some a bit on the technical side but none mention a specific number of welcome emails.

ETA: And you are mistaken that I am not like my own target audience since I am a heavy reader, buy many books, and subscribe to lists of a few of my favourite authors. Your conviction that the way you do things is and must be the only way to do things that work... *sigh* It is all very well to say 'this works for a lot of people so you should try it' but trying to hammer people over the head with "my way is the only way that works and you are 'not adults' and 'lazy' if you don't do it my way' is not a winning argument. Especially when you are talking to people who find their way is working.

 

[Luke Everhart]

If you are sending out emails consistently and have good engagement, great.

The reason why most marketing firms encourage welcome chains of at least 3 emails is because it is best practice. A brief chain will keep your name on readers' minds and it helps maintain a healthy relationship between your IP and the ISPs. Even if your email is whitelisted, there is no guarantee the readers' eyeballs will ever see an email if their ISP is guarding the gate.

Any actual evidence that starting out by sending an email every few days is 'best practice'? Calling it 'best practice' is not evidence that it will work better than a single welcome email.

 If you send a lot of emails and they are never opened, the relationship you build with their ISP may be a spamblock.

Here's one link https://www.formget.com/ip-warmup-best-practices/

The biggest issue in this thread is that everyone is convinced they know what's best based on what they prefer. Except, the people who are saying, I'd report 5 emails in a month as spam, aren't the target audience.

Newsletters should be targeted to people who are likely to buy through newsletters. So, when companies put together best practices, they aren't looking at a huge population, they are looking at a specific population. People who are likely to make a purchase from a newsletter.

Didn't read through the whole thread but best practices for a newsletter book deal service is quite different from best practices for an individual author keeping his or her readers abreast of new releases and engaged. The approach represented by RPatton's comments make sense for the former but not for the latter.

For example, "newsletters should be targeted to people who are likely to buy through newsletters" (from above quoted). Sure, makes perfect sense if you're talking strategy and curation for a newsletter service informing prospective readers of deals. On the other hand, it makes absolutely zero sense if you're talking about an author sending a newsletter to his readers (even the basic premise of the purpose of the newsletter is wrong).

[JRTomlin]

Good points, Luke.

[Joe Vasicek]

Those are good points, RPatton. If I only sent out one or two emails per month, it would probably be a good idea to do a welcome sequence as you describe.

Currently, though, I send out my newsletter frequently enough that my new subscribers easily receive 3-5 emails within the first 15-30 days. In addition, I run enough 99¢ and free promotions that almost every newsletter features a good deal. I could be wrong, but I think that's much more likely to prompt meaningful engagement than cute animal memes or a poll on which Star Trek was the best.

Whatever the case, I think the important takeaway is that however you do email marketing, you need to approach it with a plan. Following the current best practices blindly can be just as bad as choosing not to simply because it sounds like too much work.

Everyone's plan is going to look different because our circumstances and resources are all different, and there are tradeoffs to be made. For some, the marginal benefit may be worth it; for others, the cost in mental space or emotional energy doesn't make sense. Either way, anyone who wants to do an email newsletter should first come up with a plan.

[Anarchist]

I no longer advise people on how to email. There are lots of ways to do it well. I've been doing business email for more than 20 years, and I do what works for me.

When it comes to email (or marketing of any kind), everyone's mantra should be "nothing trumps my own data."

[Bill Hiatt]

What little, prawny data I have suggests that sending an email once a month works best for me. Any more than that, and the unsubscribes spike. Even when the second email of the month was a invitation to a special, subscriber-only giveaway that took almost no effort to enter and had decent prizes. (No, that didn't make any sense to me, either, but there it is.)

I know I'm not necessarily the same as all my readers, but the more often I get emailed by the same source, the less likely I am to pay any attention at all.

I can see how some of RBC's examples work. If you have people who've bought into some kind of daily challenge or other similar content, I can understand how that could be successful.

[Crystal]

I'm not sure how many books I sell from my drip campaigns, because I don't use affiliate links, but I can tell you I see a very low unsubscribe rate, despite sending 4-5+ emails, 3-4 days apart each. (One for bonus scenes from the series where they signed up, one teaser for the next book in the series, then one for each of my other series). I probably lose about 1-2% of signups by the end of the drip campaign from unsubscribes.

I do have a handful of emails bounce, but I think that's mostly because I'm giving something away with signup and people try to double sign up or use a fake email to get their goodies. Typically, I only see bounces in the first few emails, and again, it's about 2% of signups.

I am happy to see every unsub and bounce because I don't want people who aren't interested in my books on my list.

I absolutely could do better with my mailing list. I'm far form an expert. But I think the slow introduction works very well to introduce readers to my backlist and keep those backlist sales going. I can't count on Amazon to do that for me.